[WIP] 8 Tanks (Quadtari)

[Fort Apocalypse]

8 Tanks: a DPC+ (32K) game for the 2600 with Quadtari and four sets of Tennis paddles. (In theory, it should work with a Harmony cart, etc., and it works in Stella, but not in Javatari.)

 

Important note: the Quadtari only supports the paddle buttons, not the knobs. (see Quadtari thread)

 

This is a work-in-progress, and for now is just the tanks moving around and shooting without blowing anything up, so it's more of a demo until one of the next few releases.

 

To configure game to play in Stella 6.7 (you may have to do this for each release):

1. Highlight the game in Stella
2. Options -> Game Properties -> Controllers -> Quadtari button
3. Select Paddles for each of the four controllers
4. Click Ok, Ok, then Close
5. Start game and use these default keys to emulate paddle buttons to control the tanks via the default key mappings:
   space, 4, F, 6, shift-space, shift-4, shift-F, shift-6.

 

Done:

• Can control and move 8 tanks
• If you leave the button unpressed, the tank spins slowly clockwise.
• If you press the button, the tank moves forward and fires. (Using alternating frames using alt coords swapping through temp vars, ball is shared between player0-1, missile0 is shared between player2-3, missile1 is shared between player4-5, player9 dot is shared between player6-7.)
• Sound when tanks shoot
• Colors, playfield, and tank placement similar to Tank 8
• Playfield looks similar to that of Atari Tank 8
• Projectiles stop when hit playfield
• Fixed some projectile bugs

 

Planned:

• Collision detection for missiles hitting another player.
• 8 player scores. Alternating 4-player scores with color matching tank color.
• Blow up tanks when shot.
• Sound when a tank blows up.
• Some sense of game over (either some number of tanks per player or a time limit?). Note: time limit may be easier; it would only require a single indicator.
• Bug: some tanks shoot in the wrong direction for some tank positions.
• Bug: some tanks' playfield collision detection for projectiles doesn't seem to work.

 

Not sure yet whether I should try to add:

• Slowing down (trudging) each tank when it moves over the playfield. (info on DPC+ colllisions)

 

Note: If you want to compile it, DPCplus_kernel.asm in same directory extracted from bb-qt-DPCplus.zip in Karl's post with sample code for Quadtari support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8tanks_0.5.bas.bin 8tanks_0.5.bas

Edited August 25, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.1:

• Can control and move 8 tanks.
• if you leave the button unpressed, the tank spins slowly clockwise.
• if you press the button, the tank moves forward.

This release is just a demo of the tanks being able to move around. Tanks can't shoot yet. Feedback is appreciated!

8tanks_0.1.bas.bin 8tanks_0.1.bas

Edited July 17, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.2:

• Attempt to share the ball to shoot using offset of spritex/y for muzzle location. (Later will need to also use both missiles and additional sprite, so this is just a simplistic implementation.)

 

8tanks_0.2.bas.bin 8tanks_0.2.bas

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.3:

• Attempt to use one pair of swap coords for each of ball, missile0, missile1, and player9 to act as shots from all 8 tanks.
• Sounds for shots.

Known bugs:

• Sometimes projectiles initiate in wrong spot, go in wrong direction, may have multiple shots from same location going in different directions, shots get left on screen unmoving, shots don't fire or don't fire in every direction well, shot stays left of playfield and tracks similar to player's y coordinate.

 

8tanks_0.3.bas.bin 8tanks_0.3.bas

Edited July 18, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Planning to try to be close to Tank 8 colors with (starting with red in upper-left and going clockwise):

 

         ntsc pal  secam

red      44   64   44
blue     84   D4   82
green    CC   5C   B8
pinkish  3E   6E   66 (66 for SECAM is also magenta)
tan      FE   4E   0E (0E for SECAM is white)
magenta  5A   8A   86
cyan     AE   9E   9A
yellow   1E   2E   2C

 

Note: those are my approximations, not official color names, I just eyed it, and hopefully I wrote them down correctly.

 

(Attached is screenshot of original Tank 8. Note that I'm not trying to reproduce Tank 8.)

Edited July 18, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.4:

• Colors, playfield, and tank placement similar to Tank 8.

Known bugs:

• Same as previous version.

 

8tanks_0.4.bas.bin 8tanks_0.4.bas

Edited July 18, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[Fort Apocalypse]

To configure game to play in Stella 6.7 (you may have to do this for each release):

1. Highlight the game in Stella
2. Options -> Game Properties -> Controllers -> Quadtari button
3. Select Paddles for each of the four controllers
4. Click Ok, Ok, then Close
5. Start game and use these default keys to emulate paddle buttons to control the tanks via the default key mappings:
   space, 4, F, 6, shift-space, shift-4, shift-F, shift-6.

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

On 7/17/2022 at 8:27 AM, Fort Apocalypse said:

• If you leave the button unpressed, the tank spins slowly clockwise.
• If you press the button, the tank moves forward and fires.

Very nice, this is a much cleaner control scheme than I thought of in the other thread. ? Good stuff!

 

- James

[Fort Apocalypse]

15 minutes ago, ZeroPage Homebrew said:

Very nice, this is a much cleaner control scheme than I thought of in the other thread. ? Good stuff!

 

- James

This was the initial easiest effort version of it that just stuck so far! It feels a little vulnerable when you're having to wait on the tank to turn, but if there's anything I can do to make it work better, let me know!

 

I have a version locally where the projectiles stop on the playfield, but I've not yet gotten past the numerous bugs in the projectiles, which should probably work before doing projectile collisions with players.

 

 

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

2 hours ago, Fort Apocalypse said:

This was the initial easiest effort version of it that just stuck so far! It feels a little vulnerable when you're having to wait on the tank to turn, but if there's anything I can do to make it work better, let me know!

I think it works well and is easy to understand right away, it's quite a challenge to make a game where you move AND shoot with just one button! The movement reminds me a lot of the constant rotation of the player in the 2600 homebrew Kuru Kuru Tsuchinoko. Plus, since every player has to use the same control technique everything evens out!

 

- James

[Fort Apocalypse]

Release 0.5

• shots stop at playfield
• fixed: shots now independent between players (I think)
• stopped using player0; now use player1-8 for tanks (and ball, missile0, missile1, and player9 reused between p1-4 and p5-8 for projectiles)
• Thanks much to @Karl G for finding that I was dimming qtcontroller to a var that I was also using in another dim and attempting to use, which was screwing everything up in 0.5!

 

Known bugs:

• Bug: some tanks shoot in the wrong direction for some tank positions.
• Bug: some tanks' playfield collision detection for projectiles doesn't seem to work.

 

8tanks_0.5.bas.bin 8tanks_0.5.bas

Edited August 25, 2022 by Fort Apocalypse

[+ZeroPage Homebrew]

ZeroPage Homebrew is playing 8 Tanks on tomorrow's stream LIVE on Twitch, hope you can join us!

 

Tue Sep 13, 2022 @ 6PM PT | 9PM ET | 1AM GMT+1Day

WATCH LIVE: https://www.twitch.tv/zeropagehomebrew/
WATCH LATER: https://youtube.com/zeropagehomebrew/

 

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• Space Taxi (2022 WIP | 2600) by Just Jeff @Just Jeff
• Duck Race (2022 WIP | 2600) by Fort Apocalypse @Fort Apocalypse
• 8 Tanks (2022 WIP | 2600) by by Fort Apocalypse @Fort Apocalypse
• Lineman! (2022 WIP | 2600) by Kevin Kelley @KevKelley

 WATCH AT 1080P60 FOR FULL QUALITY